SCOTLAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND SHOW INCREASE IN MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

With the media and politics continuing to be very London/England-centric, it is important to remember that Scotland, Northern Ireland and sometimes Wales produce their own independent figures.

Figures over the past few months on domestic abuse in Northern Ireland and Scotland show that there is continuing to be an increase in male victims of domestic abuse. In Northern Ireland there is at least the Men's Advisory Project supported by funding from the Government and others but in Scotland the Government refuses to provide such help. 

Below is a summary of the figures from both Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Scotland

Partner Abuse

The Scottish Government's Partner Abuse survey showed that 5% of both men and women had suffered partner abuse in 2008/09 (page 1).

Since the age of 16, 21% of women said they had been a victim compared to 15% of men. Therefore 42% of victims in Scotland are male (page 10)

73% of women and 71% of men had suffered physical abuse since the age of 16 (page 14).

40% of men had not, as opposed to 21% women (page 2), reported the partner abuse they were suffering. This confirms that men are twice as likely to under-report the partner abuse they are suffering from than women.

35% of women had made the police aware of the latest incident as opposed to 8% of men (page 3)

Domestic Abuse Incidents

Last year, this site reported the growing incidence of domestic abuse against men in Scotland and how shameful it was that the Scottish Government was continually to turn a blind eye to the problem. This was because they offered no specialist services to male victims and had no intention of doing so, instead they just recognise female victims.

Incident figures (report and press release) for 2008/09 show an 8% increase in domestic abuse across the board (53,000 reported incidents).

For men:-

14% of all domestic abuse incidents are carried out on men, a 75% increase from the 8% figure reported in 2000/01 (see page 5)

There are now 2 and a half times the number of incidents against male victims then there was at the beginning of the decade. An increase from 2,873 in 2000/01 to 7,908 on 2008/09 (page 14). In addition, the number of incidents in 2007/08 was 6,753 so there has been a large increase over the year.

25-30 year old men were more likely to be a victim than any other male age group (page 6 and page 20). This certainly reflects the continuing increase in violent young women, many of whom will be taking their abusive behaviour home to their husband or boyfriend.

Female are more likely to perpetrate domestic abuse against another women than a man on another man (page 15)

Of course, the 14% figure is still far too low as these figures are based on reported incidents and do not take into account the severity of an incident nor the fact that so few men come forward. The level of under-reporting by male victims is greater than that of female victims. Not just because of the issues of pride and shame but also because the Scottish Government refuses to run any publicity campaigns encouraging male victims to come forward. The figures collated by the ManKind Initiative from the anonymous British Crime Survey give a more accurate picture where the figure is c40% as does the partner abuse survey outlined above.

Stalking

The Scottish Government also produced figures on stalking which showed that 6% of women and men were victims of stalking in 2008/09 (page 1).

Whilst females reporting sexual assault said that 96% of the perpetrators were male, those men who said they were sexually assaulted said that 48% of the perpetrators were male but 40% were female. A concept only recently emerging into the public spotlight.

Northern Ireland

The police in Northern Ireland also reported the gender breakdown of victims within their country.

The figures (table 2.4) showed that in 2008/09 there were 1,834 reported male victims (1,773 in 2007/08) and 5,436 (5,621) female victims. This shows an increase of 3% in male victims and a 3% fall in female victims. 

 

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[Toby McPhearson]

I'm researching interventions which have proved effective with the perpetrators of domestic violence. If you know of any relevant studies or projects please drop me a line [email protected]